;'■-'':; A:-^>,.>^-^'''.i%if^v 





THE EMANCIPAIKJN GROUP, 
Park. Sijuare, Bos ion. 



^^-ru • 



BRONZE GROUP 



COMMEMORATING 



EMAN.CIPATION. 



A GIFT TO THE CITY-OF BOSTON 



nOJ^. MOSES KIMBALL 



g^trkutib gtc^mber 6, 1879. 




City Document ^o. 12G. 
PRINTED BV OKDE/i 0# THE CITY CUUXCIL. 











.t)' 



1 




CHURCHILL* 



CITY OF bosto:n^ 



In Board of Aldermen, December 8, 1879. 

Ordered, That the oration of His Honor the Mayor, 
delivered at the dedication of the Statue of Abraham 
Lincoln, representing Emancipation, together with the 
address by Alderman Breck, the poem by John G. Whit- 
tier, and such other documents as may be of interest, be 
printed as a city document, under the direction of the 
Superintendent of Printing ; and that five hundred extra 
copies be printed. 

Passed. Sent down for concurrence. December 11, 
came up concurred. Approved by the Mayor December 

12, 1879. 

A true copy. 

Attest : 

S. F. McCLEARY, 

City Clerk. 



PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS. 



At a meeting of the Board of Aldermen, June 3, 1879, the 
following communication was received from the INIayor : — 

Mayor's Office, City Hall, 

Boston, June 3, 1879. 

To the Honorable the City Council : — 

I herewith transmit a communication from Hon. Moses 
Kimball, for such action as may seem fit and proper. 

FREDERICK O. PRINCE, 

* Mayor. 

Boston, May 30, 1879. 
His Honor F. O. Prince^ Mayor of Boston: — 

Dear Sir, — Having engaged of Mr. Thomas Ball a 
cast in bronze of his colossal group, emblematical of Emanci- 
pation, the central figure of which is a representation of the 
late President Lincoln, I have the honor to present the same 
to the City of Boston, conditioned that I may place it upon 
the triangular lot at the junction of Columbus avenue. Park 
square, and Pleas.'uit street, and that the city will cause the 
area to be suitably enclosed and annually cultivated with 
flowering plants and shrubs. 

The group is to arrive some time in August next. 
Respectfully yours, etc., 

MOSES KIMBALL. 



G E M A X C I P A T I O X GROUP. 

On motion of Alderman Breck, the communication was 
referred to a joint special committee and the ]Mayor. 

The chairman appointed Aldermen Charles H. B. Breck, 
Daniel D. Kelly, and Solomon B. Stebbins, on the com- 
mittee. 

The Common Council, June 5, concurred in the reference, 
and added to the committee Councilmen Henry W. Swift of 
Ward 9, Nathan Sawyer of AVard 18, Paul H. Kendricken 
of Ward 20, Oscar B. Mo wry of Ward 11, and Benjamin F. 
Anthony of AVard 19. 

The committee submitted the following report : — 

In Board of Aldermen, June 16, 1879. 
The Joint Special Committee, to Avhom was referred the 
communication from the Honorable iNIoses Kimball, present- 
ing to the city a bronze group emblematical of Emancipation, 
having considered the subject, respectfully recommend the 
passage of the following preamble, resolve, and orders. 
For the Connnittce, 

CHARLES H. B. BEECK, 

Chairman. 

W7ierea.9, A communication has Ijeen received from the 
Honorable Moses Kimball, in which he tenders to the City 
of Boston the gift of a colossal group in bronze, emblemati- 
cal of Emancipation, upon conditions that it be placed upon 
the lot of land at the junction of (,'olumbus avenue, Bark 
square, and Pleasant street, and that the city will cause the 
area to be suitably enclosed and annually cultivated with 
flowering plants and shrubs; it is, therefore, hereby 

Resolved , That the thanks of the City Council, in ))ehalf 
of the citizens of Boston, be conveyed to the Honorable 



PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS. 7 

Moses Kimball, for the public spirit displayed in his costly 
and substantial gift to the city, which is hereb}^ accepted upon 
the conditions attached to his ofi'er. 

Ordered, That the triangular lot of land situated at the 
junction of Colnmlius avenue. Park square, and Pleasant 
street be, and the same is hereby assigned for the location 
of said group. 

Ordered, That the Committee on Common and Public 
Grounds be requested to take such action as may be neces- 
sary to cause the said lot to be put in order and enclosed 
with a suitable fence, in accordance wHh the terms of the 
gift. 

The preamble, resolve, and orders were passed by the 
Board of Aldermen, and in concurrence, June 26, by the 
Common Conucil : June 28 they were approved by the 
Mayor. 

August 4 Alderman Breck submitted the followin«: to the 
Board of Aldeiinen : — 

The Committee on Common and Public Grounds, who 
were requested to cause the lot of land at the junction of 
Columbus avenue. Park square, and Pleasant street to be 
put in order, and enclosed with a suitable fence, in accord- 
ance with the terms of the gift of the Honorable Moses Kim- 
ball of the group emblematical of Emancipation, would 
respectfully report as follows : The committee have con- 
ferred with the City Architect, and he has furnished a design 
for a suitable fence and curl) to be erected upon the afore- 
said lot, and an estimate of the cost of the same, including 
the fencing and grading, amounting to $4,500. The com- 
mittee are of the opinion that the cost of the above can 
be paid from the income of the Phillips Street-Fund, so 
called. 



8 EMANCIPATION GROUP. 

They respectfully recommend the passage of the accom- 
panying order. 

For the Committee, 

HUGH O'BRIEN, 

Chairman. 

Ordered y That the Committee on Common and Public 
Grounds on the part of the Board of Aldermen be authorized 
to put in suitable order the lot of land at the junction of 
Columbus avemie, Park square, and Pleasant street, on 
which is to be placed the group emblematical of Emancipa- 
tion, the gift to the city of the Honorable Moses Kimball, 
and to erect a fence and curl) around the same ; the cost, not 
exceeding $4,500, to be paid from the income of the Phillips 
Street-Fund. 

The order was read twice and passed. 

In the Common Council, September 25, 1879, Mr, Swift 
of Ward 9 otiered an order : That the Committee of the 
Board of Aldermen on the Ei-ection of the Statue of Josiah 
Quincy, and the Joint Special Committee in charge of the 
statue commemorating Emancipation, acting together, be 
authorized to make suitable arrangements for the dedication 
of both of said statues ; the expense attending the same, not 
exceeding one thousand dollars, to bo charged to the appro- 
priation for Incidentals. 

The order was passed, and Ihe Board of Aldermen, Sep- 
tember 29, concurred. 

The committee having charge of the Quincy Statue were 
His Honor the Mayor, and Aldermen Joseph A. Tucker, 
Solomon W. Stebbins, and Daniel D. Kellev. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT. 



This work was conceived and executed by Mr. Hall, 
under the first intluence of the news of Mr. Lincoln's 
assassination. 

The original group was in Italian marble, and difiers in 
some respects from the bronze group. In the original the 
kneeling slave is represented as perfectly passive, receiving 
the boon of freedom from the hand of the great liberator. 
But the artist justly changed this, to bring the presentation 
nearer to the historical fact, by making the emancipated 
slave an agent in his own deliverance. He is accordingly 
represented as exerting his own strength, with sti-ained 
nuiscles, in breaking the chain which had liound him. A 
greater degree of dignity and vigor, as well as of historical 
accuracy, is thus imparted. The original was also changed 
by introducing, instead of an ideal slave, the figure of a 
living man, — the last slave ever taken up in ^Missouri under 
the fugitive slave law, and ^vho was rescued from his captors 
( who had transcended their legal authority) under the orders 
of the provost-marshal of St. Louis. His name was Archer 
Alexander, and his condition of servitude legally continued 
until emancipation was proclaimed and became the law of 
the land. A photographic picture was sent to ]Mr. Ball, who 
has given both the face and manly bearing of the negro. 
The ideal group is thus converted into the literal truth of 
history without losing anything of its artistic conception or 
effect. 

The m<)nument in Park s(|uare stands on a ti'iangnlar plat 



10 E M A X C I P A T I O N r4 R O U P . 

of oround in front of the Providence Eailroad station. A 
well-laid curb and sidewalk of pressed brick surround the 
plat. Inside the sidc^walk the foundation of the group is 
raised two and a half feet and surrounded by heavy granite 
containing- stones. Around this is a bronze railing. With- 
in it is the group. Two steps, of Cape Ann granite, are at 
the base, upon which stands the heavy octagonal die that 
supports the group. This is a solid block of red polished 
granite from Jonesborough, Me., and weighs about sixteen 
tons. No inscription is on this die. 

The tigure of President Lincoln is standing by a monolith, 
upon which is a book, and in his hand, which is resting on 
the monolith, is a scroll, representing the proclamation. 
The left hand is extended over the crouching figure of the 
slave, seeming to bid him ari.se and be free. 

On the inner side of the monolith is a raised shield, with 
the stars and stripes ; at the angle nearest the spectator, 
looking toward the front, is a bundle of fasces, Avith a bound 
axe ; on the next face is a medallion head of Washington, 
and at the bottom the words, "Thomas Ball, sc, 1874." 
At the base of the In-onze in front of the statue, in heavy 
raised letters, is the word 

EMANCIPATION. 

On the front of the base, in heavy raised polished letters, 
are th(? words : — 

A KACE SET FREE. 
AND THE COUNTRY AT PEACE. 

LINCOLN 

RESTS FHOAI HTS LABOIIS. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE MONUMENT. H 

On the back, in raised unpolished letters, is this inscrip- 
tion : — 

GIVEN TO THE CITY OF BOSTON^ 
BY MOSES KIMBALL, 

1879. 

At the corners of the base are four larare bronze vases for 
flowers. They are of Greek design, twenty inches high and 
thirty-one in diameter. 

At each angle of the triangular plat is to be placed a gas- 
light, composed of a cluster of three lights, making the 
group perfectly distinct during the night. 

The height of the granite die is six feet two inches ; thick- 
ness, six feet eight inches ; height of group from top of die, 
nine feet six inches ; height of the whole above the sideAvalk, 
twenty-four feet six inches. 

The group was cast in Munich at the royal foundery. 






THE PROCLAMATION 



EMANCIPATION 



By the President of the United States of America. 

A PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas, on the twenty-second clay of September, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, 
a proclamation was issued by the President of the United 
States, containing among other things the following, to wit : 

" That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord 
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held 
as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State ,^ the 
people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United 
States, shall be then, thenceforth, and forever free, and the 
Executive Government of the United States, including the 
military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and 
maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or 
acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts 
they may make for their actual freedom. 

" That the Executive will, on the first day of Januar^^ 
aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of 
States, if any, in which the people therein respectively shall 
then be in rebellion against the United States, and the fact 
that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in 



14 EMANCIPATION GROUP. 

good faith represented in the Congress of the United States 
by members chosen thereto, at elections wherein a majority 
of the qualified voters of such States shall have participated, 
shall, in the al)sence of strong countervailing testimony, be 
deemed conclusive evidence that such State and the people 
thereof are not then in rebellion against the United States." 

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Com- 
mander-in-chief of the Army and Navy of the United States 
in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and 
Government of the United States, and as a lit and necessary 
war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first 
day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose 
so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one 
hundred days from the day of the first aliove-mcntioned 
order, designate, as the States and parts of States 
wherein the people thereof respectively are this day in re- 
bellion against the United States, the following, to Avit : 
Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, except the parishes of St. 
Bernard, Plaque Mines, Jefierson, St. John, St. Charles, St. 
James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. 
Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New 
Orleans, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South 
Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, except the forty- 
eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the 
counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth 
City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities 
of Norfolk and Portsmouth, and which excepted parts are, 
for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not 
issued. 

And by virtue of tlie power and for the purpose aforesaid, 
I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within 
said designated States and parts of States are and hencefor- 



THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 15 

ward shall be free ; and that the Executive Government of 
the United States, including the Military and Naval authori- 
ties thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said 
persons. 

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be 
free, to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self- 
defence, and I recommend to them, that in all cases, when 
allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. 

And I further declare and make known that such persons 
of suitable condition will be received into the armed service 
of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and 
other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. 

And upon this, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, 
warranted hy the Constitution, upon military necessity, I in- 
voke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious 
favor of Almighty God. 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and 
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

Done at the City of Washington, this first 

day of January, in the year of our Lord one 

[l. s.] thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and 

of the Independence of the United States of 

America the eighty-seventh. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

By the President — WILLIAM H. SEWARD, 

Secretary of State. 



THE DEDICATION 



PROGRAMME. 



AT PAHA' S ^ UA R E . 

Unveiling of the Group, by tlie City Architect, in presence of the Committee, 

at 12 o'clock. 

A T FA A'E UIL II A L L . 

His Honor Mayor Prince presiding. 

Music Brown's Brigade Band. 

Prayer By the Rev. Phillips Brooks. 

Poem By John G. Whittier, 

Read by Master Andrew Chamberlain, of the 15oston Latin .School. 

Mrsu:. 

Presentation of the Group to the City of Boston, by Alderman Charles H. B. 
Breck, Chairman of the Committee. 

Oratio.n, 
By His Honor, Mayor Prince. 

Benediction. 

Music. 



THE DEDICATION EXERCISES. 



The exercises occurred in uccordance with the preceding 
programme, in the presence of a crowded audience of ladies 
and gentlemen, seated in Faneuil Hall. The committee 
originallj' intended to have the dedicatory exercises in 
Park Square, around the group, but in consequence of the 
inclemency of the weather they decided to have them in 
some public building ; and Faneuil Hall Avas selected as the 
most appropriate place. 

Upon the platform were seated a large number of dis- 
tinguished officials and others, who Avere specially invited 
to be present. Among these were His Excellency Governor 
Talbot, Hon. A. W. Beard, Collector of the Port, Hon. E. 
S. Tobey, Postmaster of Boston, Hon. Geo. P. Sanger, 
U.S. District Attorney, Hon. John P. Healy, City Solicitor, 
Hon. Josiah Quincy, and other past Mayors of Boston, Hon. 
Geo. Washington Warren, Hon. D. K. Hitchcock, the mem- 
bers of the City Council, and many representatives of the 
clergy and the bar. 

The Eev. Phillips Brooks ottered the following 



PRAYER. 

O Father of mercies and God of all comfort, we 
invoke Thy blessing* on the celebration which has 
called us here to-day. 



20 E M A N C I P A T I O N GROUP. 

We thank Thee for all that this celebration means: 
for a race set free, for a eountr}'^ at peace, and for 
Lincoln at I'est from his labors. Among the mem- 
ories of the past we stand and otfer Thee onr hnm- 
ble gratitnde for all the mercies of prosperity and 
freedom which Thon hast sent to iis; and since, in 
the mysterionsness of Th}' government, these mer- 
cies conld not come to ns except throngh war and 
terrible distress, we thank Thee even foi- the fearful 
struggle which our hearts remember as if it were 
a thing of yesterday. 

We praise Thee for all the })atriotic and heroic 
dead. Thou didst incorporate the principles for 
which oin* land contended in noljle men who freely^ 
o*ave their lives for freedom and their countrv. 
For all of them we thank Thee, and especially for 
him who stands preeminent among them, — the 
man of conscience, and reverence, and trust, of 
faith and hope and charity, of simplicity and truth- 
fulness in life, of faithfulfiess to death. We bless 
Thee that his charac-ter stands forever to represent 
the best cliaraclei' oi' the country that was saved 
from ruin and of the men who saved her. 

And, now, we tliauk Thee at last his name and 
lil'c have (bund a ])cr[)('tual memorial in this city. 
Th(m hast |)ut it into tlu' lieai-t of Thy sci'vant to 
set up tliis statue Ibi- a ))ei'petnal token of the 



THE DEDICATION EXERCISES. 21 

nobleness of self-sacrifice, and of the gratitude of 
a redeemed and liberated people. 

We solemnly dedicate the statne which he has 
bnilt to liberty and patriotism, to the love of man 
and to the fear of Tliee. May the men and 
women and children who ])ass under its shadow 
hear its voice telling them the story of the sad, 
brave, blessed life of Lincoln, so^that his memory 
may be an everlasting inspiration to us all. 

For while we thank Thee for the past we crave 
Thy blessing for the years to come ; while we honor 
the dead, the tasks that the living must do are wait- 
ing at our hands. Be Thou the Guide and Master 
of our governors. In this land where all are gover- 
nors be Thou the Guide and Master of us all. Keep 
us all true to the duty, little or great, which Thou 
hast given us, pure from all corruption, strong 
against all temptation, full of most humble humility 
before Thee, and of a brave and tender love for fel- 
low-man, such as there was in him whose statue we 
dedicate and whose memory we revere to-day. 

So may peace and happiness, truth and justice, 
religion and piety, be established among us for all 
generations. 

These things and all else that Thou seest that we 
need, we ask in all huuiility in the name of Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen. 



22 E M A N (.; 1 r A T 1 O N GROUP. 



POEM. 

KV JOHN a. WHITTIEK. 

Amidst thy sacred ctJigies 

Of old renown give place, 
O cit}', Freedom-loved ! to his 

Whose lumd unchained a race. 

Take the worn frame, that rested not 
Save in a martyr's grave — 

The care-lined face, tha^t none forgot. 
Bent to the kneeling slave. 

Let man be free ! The miglity word 
He s|)ake was not liis own ; 

An imi)ulse from the Highest stirred 
These chiselled lips of stone. 

The cloudy sign, the fiery guide . 

Along his ])athwa_y ran, 
And Nature, through his voice, denied 

The ownership of man. 

We rest in peace where tliese sad eyes 
Saw pei'il, strife, and pain ; 

His was tlu' nation's sacrifice. 
And ours the priceli'Ss gain. 

t) symliol ol" (iod's will on earth 

As it is done above I 
Bear witness to the cost and ^vorth 

( )1' justice and of love. 

Stand in thy ]»lace and testily 

To coming ages long. 
That truth is stronger th:in a lie. 

And righteousness than wronii. 



THE D E D T C A T I O X EXERCISES. 23 

This was Avritten for the occasion by Mr. Whittier, and 
was read by Master Andrew Chamberlain, a irraduate of the 
Boston Latin School. 

Alderman Charles H. B. Breck, chairman of the commit- 
tee, then presented the completed work to the Mayor. 



ALDERMAN BKECK'S ADDRESS. 

Mr. Mayor : — We are liej-e to-day to dedicate a 
group of statuary donated to the City of Boston by 
our distinguished and esteemed fellow-citizen, the 
Hon. JVIjoses Kimball, whose liberal generosity is 
most warndy appreciated, and will be rememljered by 
not only this, but by each succeeding generation of 
Bostonians. 

Much well-deserved credit is due to Mr. Kimball 
for the nice discriminating taste and excellent judg- 
ment that prompted him in the selection of a gift so 
beautiful, so appropriate, and so suggestive of histor- 
ical reminiscences, as this group of emblematical fig- 
ures, representing the most interesting, the most im- 
portant, and the most sublime event that has ever 
transpired in the histor}^ of the world, resulting in the 
freedom of more than three millions of the colored 
race, who had been held in the cruel bondage of 
slavery since the early settlement of our country. 

This group will ])e a lasting memorial of the issu- 
ing of that proclamation by Abraham Lincoln which 



24 EMAXCIPATIOX f4E0UP. 

finally broii<>-lit about the eiitii'e abolition of slavery, 
never again, we ti'ust, to l)e revived in these Ignited 
States. The statne of Mr. Lineohi, so expressive and 
life-like, will ever remind ns of the amiable dispo- 
sition and many noble virtues of that eminent!}^ good 
and great man, and will always be dearly cherished 
by a truly grateful ])eoi)le, Avho for long years had 
wept and prayed tliat the eui-se of shivery, with all its 
attendant cruelties and horrors, might be done away 
with. Through many differences of opinions, both 
political and social, and the intervention of powerful 
family and private interests, this could not be accom- 
plished until President Lincoln, when all other meas- 
ures had failed to bring to an end the most disastrous 
and terrible civil war the world had ever known, 
on the first of January, 18G3, issued his proclamation 
of emancipation, which hastened the close of the war 
and foreshadowed the coming of liberty to the down- 
trodden and oppressed. 

But it is not for me, Mr. Ma><)r, to enlarge on this 
subject. That ])leasaut duty (U'volves upon you, and 
there is no one uiore ca|)al)le or more able to do jus- 
tice to the occasion than yourself. 

As, chairman of the joint sj)ecial conunittee to 
wdiom was assigned this matter, and as the duly au- 
thoi'ized re])i'esentalive of the nuiniei|)al government, 
I now ha\'e the hon(jr to surrender to you, Mr. Mayor, 



THE DEDICATION EXERCISES. 25 

for the citizens of Boston, this elegant work of art. 
It will be a most valuable addition to the many beau- 
tiful statues that already adorn our avenues and ])ul> 
lic grounds, and an honor to the donor. 



• The Mayor received the gift in behalf of the city, and 
pronounced the following oration. 

The exercises were closed with a 4^nediction by Rev. 
Phillips Brooks. 



O RATI O N, 



BY HIS HONOR 



FREDEKICK O. PRI^^CE 



Oentlemen of the City Council : — 

Fellow-Citizens, — We place to-day upon its 
pedestal this pleasing work of art, presented to the 
City of Boston by our fellow-citizen, the Honorable 
Moses Kimball. The Municipal Council and the 
people are grateful to the munificent donor, and I 
have been requested to express their acknowledg- 
ments, and make such dedicatory remarks as seem 
appropriate to the occasion. 

Mr. Kimball has attached a condition to his gift. 
He requires the city to make provision for its care 
and protection, and place it where the people " most 
do congregate," that they may be constantly re- 
minded of the great event it commemorates; for it 
is his desire, by this memorial bronze, not only to 
adorn the city and gratify our sense of the beautiful, 
but to elevate and instruct the popular mind by its 



28 E INI A N C 1 P A T I O N GROUP. 

solemn lessons of justice, philanthropy, and patri- 
otism. Thus, in making the gift and directing its 
location, his liberality and wisdom are equally con- 
spicuous. 

The city has agreed to comply with this condition. 
The site selected is a thoroughfare, and meets the 
approbation of the considerate donor. May this elo- 
quent memorial endure as long as things made by 
human hands are permitted to endure ; as long as the 
human mind retains its capacity to know that liberty 
is the gift of Heaven to man, and that resistance to 
tyranny is obedience to God. 

The desire to record important events, and the 
great actors therein, by some artistic expression, is 
such a natural disposition, that all nations, civilized 
and barbaric, have invoked architecture, scul]:>ture, 
painting, and poetry, to commemorate their eminent 
sovereigns, soldiers, statesmen, philosophers, orators, 
poets, and those who have rendered beneficial service 
to the State and to humanity. Gratitude, pride, and 
affection, are not satisfied to trust such commemo- 
ration to a vehicle so uncertain as tradition. The 
historic page informs only the student and the 
lettered; but all can j-ead and understand, with 
more or less appreciation, the language of art. The 
popular mind comprehends more readily an idea in 
the concrete than the abstract, — an idea expressed 



ORATION. 29 

by sensuous forms than by words, however eloquent. 
Art performs its highest office when it perpetuates 
heroic action. I^ational monuments are epic lessons 
to future generations. They instruct, admonish, de- 
light, and inspire. That which we dedicate to-day 
speaks of the most important act in our annals, and 
commemorates one of the great eras of the Republic, 

— the emancij)ation of four millions of slaves! 

It is fitting and appropriate that we should come 
here to Faneuil Hall and have our dedicatory exer- 
cises. The associations of this venerable and his- 
toric place accoi'd with the solemn character of the 
occasion. The walls which heard those denuncia- 
tions of tyranny that led to the immortal declaration 

— "All men are created free," — should echo our 
thanksgiving that all men throughout our broad do- 
main — of every race and color — are at last free, 
and witness the consecration of the sculpture which 
commemorates the event. 

SLAVERY NOW INDEFENSIBLE. 

The occasion does not require me to enter at 
length into the causes which led to the great civil 
war. I do not propose to discuss the right, moral or 
legal, of one man to have property in another; nor 
shall I have much to say upon the nature and influ- 
ence of slavery, or, the political or economic conse- 



30 E il A N C I P A T I U N GROUP. 

quenees Avhich have come from it. The opinions of 
mankind upon the whole matter have been made up, 
and are not to be changed. However nnich men 
may differ as to forms of government, and the 
administration of government, whatever divergence 
of opinion may exist touching pohtical measures and 
political instrumentalities, no one in any part of the 
world enlightened by Christian civilization will now 
dare to defend slavery as a system of labor. It has 
ceased to be ; but its death-struggles convulsed the 
country as nothing else could, ;^ind provoked the 
most dreadful of all Avars, — civil war. Let it be 
forgotten and buried with the dead ])ast; and in its 
grave let us put all the wild passions and bitter ani- 
mosities it evoked. It was hostile to national union 
and domestic peace ; but, now that its baleful influ- 
ence is over, let us hope th[it we ma}^ be again one 
people, politically and socially, so that we may be 
the better able to work out our destiny and mission 
among the nations of the earth. I propose to recall 
to your attention at this time some of the causes 
which led to emancipation. 

When the Declaration of Amei'ican Independence 
was pronuilgated all the thirteen colonies were slave- 
holding States. At the North it was generall}' be- 
lieved that the proposition therein set forth, that all 
men were born free, a[)[)lie(l alike to the negro as 



ORATION. 31 

well as to the white man. In Massachusetts the 
Supreme Court, reflecting the sentiments of the 
Puritans and their steady devotion to the right of 
personal liberty in all men, declared that not only the 
slaves here were emancipated by that instrument, 
but that they had been already made free, by the 
adoption of the State Constitution and Bill of 
Kights, previous to the formatiour of the Federal 
Constitution. 

In other Northern States similar judicial decisions 
were made, and slp-ver}^ soon ceased to exist therein. 
It was otherwise at the South. The material pros- 
perity of that portion of the country was thought to 
depend upon the maintenance of slavery, for the time 
at least ; and, influenced by their supposed • interests, 
our southern brethren did not consider the declara- 
tion as universal in its operation, and therefore re- 
stricted its application to white citizens alone. 

Whoever inquires into the opinions and sentiments 
of the leading minds of the country when the Fed- 
eral Constitution w^as formed will find that slavery 
was regarded everywhere as a political, if the en- 
lightened sense of the people had not then begun to 
consider it as a moral, evil. Thinking men, ]N^orth 
and South, believed its existence was a source of 
national weakness, and that its influence on free 
labor was unwholesome and depressing. Its ultimate 



o2 EMANCIPATION GEO UP. 

extinction was therefore desired and expected. Both 
sections of the country deprecated the continuance 
of the African slave-trade, from fear that the institu- 
tion would be perpetuated to an indefinite period; for 
the belief obtained that slavery would die out if the 
slave-trade were abandoned. 

OPINIONS OF THE EAKLY SOUTHERN STATESMEN. 

As early as 1772 the Legislature of Virginia had 
memorialized the King of Great Britain upon the 
dangers of slavei-y, and expressed the desire that the 
slave-trade might be abolished; but the king replied, 
" that, upon pain of his highest displeasure, the im- 
portation of slaves should not be in any respect ob- 
structed.'' How are we to I'econcile this declaration 
fi"om the crown with the decision of the English court 
in 1772, in the celebrated Sommersett case, that no 
man could make a slave of another? Well may 
honest Ben Franklin indignantly say, "Pharisaical 
Britain! to pride thyself in setting free a single slave 
that hap|)ened to land on th}' coast, while thy laws 
continue a traffic whereby so many thousands are 
dragged into a slaveiy that is entailed upon their 
posterity." 

As I have said, it was thought that slavery would 
socm die out if the importation of slaves should 
cease. When it was pi-oposed in the Fedei-al Con- 



O It A T I ( ) N . 33 

vention b}^ some northern delegates that the slave- 
trade should continue beyond the term of twenty 
years, the southern members objected that the period 
was too long. Mr. Madison was strongl}^ of this 
opinion, and so expressed himself. Jefferson said 
during the war of the Revolution, " The w^ay, I 
hope, is preparing, under the auspices of Heaven, for 
a total emancipation." At anothei^ime he confessed 
that " he trembled for his country when he remembered 
that God was just." Washington declared, "there 
was not a man living who wished more sincerely than 
he to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery." 
Luther Martin and AViliiam Pinckney, the great law- 
yers of Maryland, both advocated emancipation, — 
the former in the Federal Convention of 1787, and 
the latter in the Maryland House of Delegates in 
1789. Mr. Iredell, of Xorth Carohna, said in the 
Constitutional Convention, " AVhen the entire aboli- 
tion of slavery tak-es place, it will be an event which 
must be pleasing to every generous mind, and to 
every friend of human nature." I might quote the 
opinions of many other southern statesmen of that 
day to the same effect. Mr. Webster observes in his 
great speech on the Constitution and the Union, 
" that the eminent men, the most eminent men, and 
nearly all the conspicuous politicians of the South, 
then held the same sentiments, — that slaverv was an 



34: EMANCIPATION GROUP. 

evil, a blight, a scourge, and a curse. There are no 
terms of reprobation of slavery so vehement in the 
Xorth at that day as in the South. The IN^orth was 
not so excited against it as the South; and the rea- 
son is, I suppose, that there was much less of it at 
the ISTorth, and the people did not see, or think they 
saw, the evils so prominently as they were seen, or 
thought to be seen, at the South." 

Keverdy Johnson, Senator from Maryland, in his 
memorable speech made on the 5th April, 1804, in the 
Senate of the United States, on the constitutional 
amendment abolishing slavery, said, " The men 
who fought through the Revokition, those who 
survived its perils and shared its glory, and who 
were called to the convention by which the Con- 
stitution of the United States was drafted and rec- 
ommended to the adoption of the American people, 
almost without exception thought that slavery was 
not only an evil to any people among whom it might 
exist, but that it was an evil of the highest character, 
which it was the duty of all Christian people, if pos- 
sible, to remove, because it was a sin as well as an 
evil. I think the history of those times will bear me 
out in the statement, that if the men by whom the 
Constitution was framed, and the people by whom it 
was adopted, had anticipated the time in which we 
live, they would have provided by constitutional enact- 



OKATION. 35 

ment that that evil and that sm should at some 
comparatively unremote day be removed; 
they earnestly desired, not only upon grounds of 
poUtical economy, not only upon reasons material in 
their character, but upon grounds of morality and 
religion, that sooner or later the institution should 
terminate." As further evidence of the state of pub- 
lic opinion contemporaneous with the formation of 
the Constitution, I will add, that abolition societies 
were then formed in most of the original thirteen 
States; in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, 
Yii'ginia, Delaware, ISTew York, and Pennsylvania. 
That of the latter was foi'uied as early as 1774, and 
Dr. Franklin was its president. John Jay, Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
was the first, and Hamilton was the second, president 
of the New York society. 

But the most striking proof of the unanimity of 
public sentiment throughout the country. South as 
well as JSTorth, in regai'd to the ultimate extinction of 
slavery, is to be found in the passage of the cele- 
brated ordinance of 1787, by which slaveiy was for- 
ever excluded ■• from the whole territory over which 
the Congress of the United States had jurisdiction." 
And that was all the territory north-west of the 
Ohio. This ordinance was passed hy the unanimous 
concurrence of the whole South. The vote of every 



36 EM AXCIPATIOX GROUP. 

State in the Union was given in its favor, with the 
exception of a single mdividnal vote, which was 
given by a northern man. " The oi'dinance," says 
Mr. Webster, " prohibiting slavery forever north- 
west of the Ohio has the hand and seal of every 
southern member of Congress." 

PIIOVISIONS or THE CONSTITUTION. 

IS^otwithstanding these views of the southern 
people touching shivery as an institution, at the 
time the fathers Avere engaged in framing the Federal 
Constitution, they were not prepared for immediate 
emancipation. Objections were urged against it. 
It w^as thought that the economic interests of the 
South would sutler, for a time at least, by any such 
sweeping and radical change in their system of 
labor, and they were unwilling to risk the experi- 
ment. Guarantees for the protection of slavery were 
therefore demanded as the condition upon which 
they would adopt the political compact which was 
to "form a more perfect union,'" and make us one 
people. 

There was much embarrassment in adjusting the 
matter so as to satisfy all parties. An agreement, 
however, was tinally reached through mutual com- 
promises, and the Constitution Avas ratified and 
adopted by ail the Slates. 



ORATION 37 

Three important propositions were thus estab- 
lished : — 

First. — The recognition of shivery as it then 
existed in the States, with full power in the States 
over slavery within their respective limits. 

Second. — The prohibition of slavery in all the ter- 
ritory then owned by the United States, through the 
adoption of the ordinance of 1787. 

Third. — The grant to the new government of 
the power to abolish the slave-trade after a limited 
period. 

The ratification of the Constitution was concur- 
rence on the part of both North and South in these 
different propositions. 

The new government being thus established, the 
United States of America took a new dej^arture, and 
entered the family of nations as one sovereign power, 
formed from many parts, and commenced a new 
career of national life. 

It had the blessings and prayers of all those in 
every quarter of the globe who love liberty, and who 
feel that civilization can only develop and advance 
under its benign influence. The future seemed 
surely " full of joy and promise and sunshine." The 
genius of the people, their ardent love of liberty, 
their hardy virtues, their indomitable courage, ever 
reliable for the defence of theii- political rights, their 



38 * EMANCIPATION GROUP. 

form of government so admirably adapted for the 
development of all that makes a nation powerful and 
prosperous, their varied climate, their vast resources, 
their fortunate geographical position, with the wide 
Atlantic between them and the old feudal world, and 
the national polity inspired by the genius of Wash- 
ington, which avoided all entangling alliances, — all 
promised centuries of happy, prosperous, and glorious 
national . life. The Saturnian age was to return 
again. 

But there were those whose judgments were not 
wholly controlled by these high hopes and pleasing 
anticipations. They saw, from the beginning, beneath 
the surface of this halcyon sea, and not far below it, 
hidden and dangerous rocks that lay in the path of 
the ship of state. They felt that the government, 
with all its apparent exemption from the causes of 
national decline and decay, with all its seeming pos- 
session of assured and immortal life, Avas, like the 
divinely born Grecian hero, vulnerable in one place 
at least, — in that feature of its organization which 
compelled the recognition and protection of shivery. 
They could not see how such potent antagonisms as 
Slavery and Freedom could long* continue to exist side 
by side; and they felt that, sooner or later, either the 
encroaching freedom of the Xorth must dominate 
the South, or the encroaching slavery of the South 



ORATION. . 39 

must dominate the IsTorth, despite of covenants, 
compromises, compacts, and constitutions. 

THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 

The event corresponded with their predictions. 
" In o great political or moral revolution," says a dis- 
tinguished essayist, "has ever occurred, which has 
not been accompanied by its prognostic." Such soon 
appeared, foreshowing the great change which was 
to come over the southern mind with respect, not 
only to the policy of maintaining slavery as a system 
of labor, but to the moral right to do so. Cotton, 
which w^as not considered a commercial product of 
the South at the adoption of the Constitution, was 
found, after the invention of the cotton gin, so 
adapted to the climate of the slave States as practi- 
cally to give them a monopoly of its cultivation. It 
was soon discovered that here was an inexhaustible 
mine of wealth. All that was needed for its devel- 
opment was cheap labor, and it w^as believed that 
such could be only found in slave labor. The entire 
policy of the South in respect to ♦the institution 
immediately changed, and all their thoughts and 
efforts were directed to its protection and extension. 
For this purpose new territories were acquired and 
new States admitted into the Union. The political 
power of the South was thus greatly augmented, and 



40 EMANCIPATION GROUP. 

the North, alarmed lest slavery should be national- 
ized, organized to prevent its further extension. 

These two opposing forces soon generated an 
" irrepressible conflict." 

Both sides coin])lained of each other. Each 
charged broken faith and violations of the constitu- 
tional compact. When time shall soften the J^reju- 
dices and calm the passions engendered in the 
unnatural strife, so that the conduct of both parties 
can be examined with judicial impartiality, the his- 
torian will be able to set forth all the facts and make 
up the record. We are too near the events; we 
share too largely, both at the North and the South, 
the feelings and opinions which inaugui'ated the 
strife, to enable us to make pro[)ei' discrimination. 
The verdict must be rendered by another generation; 
but there is one fact about which thei-e can be no 
dispute. The South, alleging that slavery and their 
interests were endangered by the election of Mr. 
Lincoln to the Presidericy, and the access to powder 
of the Republican party, and claiming the right of 
secession, made war upon the flag. Thereupon, the 
administration, in obedience to the mandates of the 
Constitution, marshalled its forces foi- the mainten- 
ance of the Fedci'al authority and the pi'eservation 
of the Union. Civil war was thus inaugui'ated. 

Among the questions involved in this terrible con- 



ORATION. 41 

troversy, which the student of history may perhaps 
raise, will be, whether this conflict could have been 
avoided by any diff'erent statesmanship, notwith- 
standing the intense feeling respecting- slavery which 
divided the people of the two sections, and the hos- 
tile spirit which animated them. 

It may be asked,- if slavery be regarded as the pre- 
disponent, as well as the immediate cause of the war, 
whether it would not ere long have died out under 
the advancing civilization of the age, which was last 
destroying the conditions under which it could alone 
exist? Would not the progress of moral ideas, and 
the enlightened opinions of mankind, have made it 
impossible for any nation, especially the English- 
speaking race, to uphold forever the hideous 
institution? 

Data might perhaps be found for such speculation 
in the changed sentiments of the northern tier of 
slave States during the decade preceding the war, 
touching the right to hold property in man, and the 
policy of maintaining this system of labor, and in 
the significant fact that the slaves were fast dis- 
appeai'ing from this section of the country. The 
recent action of Russia, Spain, Brazil, and other 
nations, might be cited to show the great changes in 
public opinion in respect to the institution. In Cuba 
all slaves over sixty years of age have been manu- 



42 EMANCIPATION GROUP. 

mitted; and within a few days the Spanish Minister 
of Colonies i)resented to the Senate at Madrid the 
government bill, touching the abolition of slavery in 
Cuba, remarking that " it was contrai-y to the laws 
of nature, and could no longer be maintained in the 
civilized world." Surely, the world moves! Perhaps 
it will be fomid, upon careful examination of all the 
facts, that slavery was rather the exciting than the 
actual cause of the strife between the North and the 
South, and that deeper down there were the same 
forces at work for the accomplishment of this result, 
which threatened nullification and secession in 1830, 
and which would have then led to civil war but 
for the eloquence of Webster, and the firmness of 
Jackson. 

LESrCOLN NOT AN EXTHEMIST. 

Mr. Lincoln, when elected President of the United 
States, was not an abolitionist in the extreme sense 
of the tei-m. He was not of the hlijlier-laio party. 
He was opposed to slavery — moi-ally and politically. 
He believed the Declaration of Independence oper- 
ated equally upon all men, without regard to color; 
and while he was opposed to the extension of slavery 
into new States and territories, he recognized fully 
the binding force of the compromises under which 
the Constitution was adopted, and the protection 



ORATION. 43 

which that compact gave slavery in the States where 
it existed. lie had no disposition or intention to 
molest or interfere in any way with the institution 
there. He repeatedly defined his position on this 
question in his speeches in the political campaigns 
previous to his election, and so clearly and unam- 
biguously that he could not be misunderstood. 

In the celebrated debate with Mr. Douglas, when 
they were both candidates for the United States 
Senate, Judge Douglas asked him whether he then 
stood, as he stood in 1854, in favor of the uncondi- 
tional repeal of the fugitive slave law; and he re- 
plied, " I do not now nor ever did stand in favor of 
the unconditional repeal of the fugitive slave law." 
Judge Douglas then asked him if he stood pledged, 
as in 1854, against the admission of any more slave 
States into the Union ; and he answered, " I do not 
now nor ever did stand pledged against the admis- 
sion of any more slave States." He further said that 
he was not pledged to the abolition of slavery in the 
District of Columbia, nor to the prohibition of the 
slave-trade between the States. 

These declarations were not satisfactory to the 
radical anti-slavery men; for they showed most con- 
clusively that he did not belong to that political 
church. 

In his address at Cincinnati, in 1859, he said, " I 



44 EINIANCIPATION GROUP. 

am not what they call, as I understand it, a black 
Republican, but I think slavery wrong, morally and 
politically; " and, referring to some Kentuckians pres- 
ent, observed, "We Republicans mean to treat you, 
as near as we possibly can, as Washington, Jefierson, 
and Madison, treated you. We mean to leave you 
alone, and in no way interfere with your institution; 
to abide by all and every compromise of the Consti- 
tution." 

In his remarks to the Mayor and Common Council 
of Washington, just after his election as President, 
he assured them that the peojile should have all 
their rights; "not grudgingly, but fully and fairly." 

In his first inaugural, and in his j^roclamation, he 
says, "Apprehension seems to exist among the 
people of the Southern States, that by the accession 
of a Republican administration their property and 
their peace and personal security are to be en- 
dangered. There never has been any reasonable 
cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most 
ample evidence to the contrary has all the while 
existed, and been open to their inspection. It is 
found in nearly all the published speeches of him 
who now addresses you. I do but quote from one 
of those speeches when I declare, that "^I have no 
purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the 
institution of slavery in the States where it now 



ORATION. 45 

exists.' I believe I have no lawful right to do so, 
and I have no inclination to do so. Those who nom- 
inated and elected me did so with the full knowl- 
edge that I had made this and similar declarations, 
and had never recanted them; and, more than this, 
they placed in the platform for my acceptance, and 
as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and 
emphatic resolution which I now read : — 

" ^ Hesolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the 
rights of the States, and esj^ecially of the rights of 
each State, to oi'der and control its own domestic in- 
stitutions according to its own judgment exclu- 
sively, is essential to that balance of power on which 
the perfection and endurance of our political fabric 
depends; and we denounce the lawless invasion by 
armed force of the soil of any State or territory, no 
matter under what pretext, as among the gravest 
crimes.' 

" I now reiterate these sentiments, and in doing so 
I only press upon the public attention the most con- 
clusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, 
that the property, peace, and security, of no section 
are to be in anywise endangered by the now incom- 
ing administration." 

THE POSITION OF THE EEPUBLICAN PARTY. 

Whatever the South may have feared from the 



46 EMANCIPATION GROUP. 

extreme men around Mr. Lincoln, they had, oi- could 
have had, no apprehension that he would not stand 
squarely and firmly by his opinions and promises on 
this great question; for if thei"e was any trait of 
character, any one virtue, fo]* which he was espe- 
cially noted, it wns his honesty and fidelity to truth. 
These qualities were conspicuous through all his 
checkered and unblemished life, from the time when, 
poor and struggling for existence, he followed the 
hard fortunes of the liat-boatman on the Mississippi; 
through all his honoi'al)le cai-eer as a lawyer and a 
legislator, until elected to the highest office in the 
gift of the people. When he took the oath upon his 
inauguration to *"' preserve, protect, and defend, the 
Constitution of the United States," he took it, as he 
says, " with no mental i-eservations, and with no 
purpose to construe the Constitution or laws l)y any 
liypercritical rules." Can any one doubt that he 
intended fi'om the beginniug to keep this solemn 
oath, and to administer the government honestly, 
fairl}^, and according to the requirements of the 
Constitution? 

Tt is thus evident that there was no design on the 
part of the Keiniblican i)arty to interfere, upon their 
accession to poA\ er, with slavery in the States where 
it then existed. Furthermore, if they had such de- 
sign they could not have executed it. Gov. Perry, 



ORATION. 47 

of South Carolina, well said, " The rights of the 
South were in no possible danger, even had Mr. 
Lincoln been disposed to interfere with them. There 
w^as at that time a majority of twenty-seven in the 
House of Representatives politically opposed to him. 
There was a majority in the Senate of six opposed 
to him. A majority of the Supreme Court were 
opposed to the principles of the Republican party. 
A large majority of the people had supported others 
for the Presidency. He was powerless to injure the 
slave States." Some of the more radical members of 
the party might have proposed, in their hostility to 
the institution, violent and unconstitutional measures; 
but they were inconsiderable in numbers and with- 
out controlling influence. 

It was the duty of the government to defend itself 
against all assaults of its enemies, foreign and 
domestic, — to maintain the Union of the States, — 
and it was bound to use all powers and means within 
its control necessary for the purpose. When, there- 
fore, the war came, the executive summoned the mil- 
itary force of the country for its protection ; but it 
was not until the contest had continued for nearly 
two years; until a vast amount of treasure and blood 
had been expended, and it had been proved that the 
armies of the republic were inadequate for the sup- 
pression of this gigantic revolt, that the President, 



48 E IM A N C I P A T I O X GROUP. 

as a last resource, adopted the expedient of emanci- 
pation. 

All his conduct shows that, in taking this impor- 
tant step, Mr. Lincoln did not move hastily, like a 
partisan, who was impatiently seeking for the oppor- 
tunity to abolish slavery; but slowly, cautiously, and 
reluctantly, as a statesman should, who appreciated 
the solemn magnitude of the measure, and saw the 
momentous consequences which would follow it. He 
reflected long and seriously before acting. He con- 
scientiously considered the obligations of his official 
oath and the demands of duty. 

THE POSTPONEMEiXT OP EMANCIPATIOX. 

No political, party, or other improper considera- 
tions were permitted to influence his judgment or 
control his action. So careful was he not to err in 
the matter, it was thought by many, not extreme in 
their views, that the cause of the Union suffered by 
his delay. But in so grave an exigency he preferred 
to err on what he deemed the safest side. When 
therefore General Fremont issued his order, in Au- 
gust, 18(31, declaring the slaves of the Missouri 
insurgents to be thereafter free, Lincoln, regarding 
the measure premature and impolitic, although he 
believed it was competent to adopt it undei* the 
war powers of the Constitution, did not then think 



ORATION. 49 

it an "indispensable necessity," and directed its 
modification. 

When, a little later. General Cameron, the Secre- 
tary of War, suggested the arming of the negroes, 
he did not think this an "indispensable necessity," 
and objected to the proposal. 

When, still later. General Hunter made his procla- 
mation and order declaring all the slaves in South 
Carolina, Georgia, and Florida free forever, he an- 
nulled it, " not thinking the indispensable necessity 
had come." On the question of emancipating and 
arming negroes, he said, " The Union must be pre- 
served, and all indispensable means must be used; 
but I deprecate haste in the use of extreme measures, 
which might reach the loyal as well as the disloyal." 

It will be remembered that the public sentiment 
was becoming daily more and more intense in the 
demand for immediate and unconditional emancipa- 
tion as the shortest and surest way of bringing the 
war to an end. It was urged that the crushing of 
slavery would be the crushing of the rebellion. It 
was claimed that emancipation would bring into the 
Union ranks hundreds of thousands of colored men. 
The more violent of the Republican newspapers de- 
nounced Mr. Lincoln for remissness and inaction. 
He replied in his defence, " My paramount object is 
to save the Union, and not either to save or destroy 



50 EMANCIPATION GROUP. 

slavery. If I could save the Union, without freeing 
any slave, I would do it; if I could save it by freeing 
all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by 
freeing some, and leaving others alone, I would do 
it." 

Notwithstanding all the pressure upon him for the 
issue of the Proclamation of Emancipation, he still 
hastens slowly. He waits until he could put the 
slave party clearly in the wrong; until the South 
had passed the Rubicon; until it was evident that 
the insurgents would never abandon the contest; un- 
til the war had been so waged as to leave no alterna- 
tive but to yield the cause, and allow the Union to 
be broken up and destroyed. 

I recall all this to your attention to show how 
carefully and cautiously he reached his determina- 
tion to adopt the measure of emancipation. When 
he finally resolved upon it he gave ample notice of 
his intention, that those who would be affected by its 
operation might save themselves, if they wished to 
do so. Aftei- months went by, with no signs of sur- 
rendei*, and no indication that the enemies of the 
Union and the republic would return to their alle- 
giance, declaring that " he sincerely believed it to be 
an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon 
military necessity, upon which he invoked the con- 
siderate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor 



ORATION. 51 

of Almighty God," he issued the Proclamation of 
Emancipation. 

The bolt was launched which was certain to end 
the war, destroy secession, vindicate the national au- 
thority, and save the Union. 

EMANCIPATION A WAR MEASURE. 

It is not necessary to consider the right of govern- 
ment to resort to emancipation as a war measure. I 
will only briefly say, that it is not to be denied that, 
under the circumstances, it was fitting and proper; 
that it was, as Mr. Lincoln said, justified as a mili- 
tary necessity. It was approved by Congress by a 
resolution passed by a large majority, and the coun- 
try has endorsed it. 

War existed between the United States and the 
seceding States ; and the Supreme Court of the Uni- 
ted States held, in 1863, in the case of the Hiawatha, 
"that where the course of justice is interrupted by 
revolt, rebellion, or insurrection, so that the courts of 
justice cannot be kept open, civil war exists, and 
hostilities may be prosecuted on the same footing as 
if those opposing the government were foreign ene- 
mies. All persons residing in the insurgent States 
are liable to be treated as enemies. . . . They 
are none the less enemies because they are traitors." 

By the laws of war, the property of both enemies 



52 EMANCIPATION GROUP. 

and friends may be taken when needed. If slaves 
were property, then the government conld by these 
laws take them to help subdue the enemy; their lib- 
eration would obviously weaken the latter and 
strengthen the former. The Constitution gives the 
Executive belligerent powers flagrante hello, and he 
is the sole judge whether the exigency exists for the 
exercise of these powers. The only limit to the war 
powers is to be found in the law of nations; and by 
the law of nations,' and the practice of belligerents 
in modern times, the slaves of an enemy may be lib- 
erated in time of war by military power. This 
power was exercised by England in the revolution- 
ary war, and in the State of Virginia alone more 
than thirty thousand slaves Avere thus liberated. 
Jefferson himself conceded that England had this 
right. England again exercised this right in the 
war of 1812. France did the same in her Avars Avith 
England, and some of the South American republics 
have also exercised this right, and it has been recog- 
nized and admitted by all publicists. I do not under- 
stand that it is denied at the South. 

It may be asked, Avhether it Avas expedient and 
jjoUtic to issue the proclamation. If avc recur to 
the condition of things at the time, the question Avill 
be readily answered. The government had been 
trying for nearly tAVO years to subdue the rebellion. 



ORATION. 53 

Immense sums of money had been expended. Many 
hundred thousand soldiers had been called out. 
Many fierce and sanguinary battles had been fought. 
The war had assumed gigantic proportions, and 
extended over a vast area of territory. Eleven 
States w^ere in revolt. All their resources of men 
and money, were levied. The "cradle and the 
grave " had been robbed for recruits. The most 
inflexible determination had been everywhere shown 
to surrender only when conquered. Foreign inter- 
vention was threatened. It may be doubted whether 
the Union could be saved by the means within the 
control of the government unless the enemy were 
deprived of the aid of the slaves, — for the latter 
were a great source of power; they raised the sup- 
plies for carrying on hostilities; they constructed 
military works, and served in the armies. Emanci- 
pation would transfer these allies to the national flag, 
and strengthen the national ranks by vast numbers 
of willing recruits. There can be no doubt, then, 
that it was our policy, as it was our right, to pro- 
claim freedom to the negroes. 

EFFECT OF THE PROCLAMATION. 

Once free they could not .be again enslaved, for the 
right of the slave to his freedom after being liberated 
is not to be disputed; and, furthermore, it would 



54 EMANCIPATION GEOUP. 

be most atrocious as well as unjust, that he who had 
once worn the uniform of a United States soldier, 
and carried the flag through the carnage of battle, 
should be again enslaved upon the recurrence of the 
peace which he had helped to conquer. It may be 
here observed that the Confederate Congress, in the 
last hours of the war, passed a bill authorizing the 
employment of slaves as soldiers, although the meas- 
ure was adopted too late to help their cause. But in 
the debate upon the bill it was conceded that " to 
arm the negroes is to give them freedom. When 
they come out scarred from the conflict they must be 
free." 

Furthermore, it is not to be denied that the gov- 
ernment is at all times entitled to the aid of all those 
it protects in its hour of danger. The black man is 
as much bound as the white man to perform military 
duty. There is no discrimination. When the com- 
mon safety is imperilled, all alike must respond to 
the call of patriotism. 

The sequel demonstrated the wisdom of emancipa- 
tion. As soon as the proclamation was issued, the 
power of the rebellion was broken. The capacity 
of the insurgents to continue the contest weakened, 
and was soon destroyed. Both parties soon saw that 
further resistance to the national arms could not 
long be maintained. Emancipation, by thus short- 



ORATION. 55 

ening the war, saved thousands of lives, and a vast 
increase of national debt. 

KIGHT OF SECESSION. 

It should be remembered that the Southerners 
always denied that they were revolutionists. They 
justified, or attempted to justify, their action in 
taking arms against the government, by the right 
of secession, which, through their interpretation 
of the Federal Constitution, belonged to all the 
States. 

It was claimed that, after the passage of the seces- 
sion ordinances by the slave States, the latter re- 
sumed all the sovereignty which they possessed be- 
fore the adoption of the Constitution, and that when 
they united and established the Southern Confeder- 
acy, it became de jure — as it was during the years 
of the war de facto — an independent autonomy ; 
that upon this theory the contest*was not a rebellion, 
but a war between two nationalities. Beyond ques- 
tion a large part of the southern people honestly be- 
lieved in this alleged right of secession. Their 
political leaders, of the school of Haynes and Cal- 
houn, had long maintained the construction of the 
Constitution which gave this right, and the public 
mind in that section of the country had become so 
thoroughly imbued and saturated with this heresy 



5(5 EMANCIPATION GROyP. 

that the people were united and fixed in their deter- 
mination to maintain this right. 

We of the ^orth, under the teachings of our 
statesmen, denied that a State, for any cause, could 
secede. We are especially indebted to Daniel Web- 
ster for our political instruction and guidance here. 
Previous to his masterly exposition of the nature 
and genius of the Federal Constitution, the character 
of that instrument, and its efiects upon the States, 
and the relation of the States to each other and to 
the central government, and the respective rights and 
obligations of each, were imperfectly understood. 
He demonstrated that this political compact estab- 
lished something more than a confederation. He 
proved, to the people of the Nortli at least, that it 
created a national unity, and established a national 
government, notwithstanding it reserved to the States 
certain powers and remains of sovereignty for the 
control of their loc^l and domestic altairs; and that 
the union thus created could not be dissolved except 
by the consent of all the States or by revolution. 

This exposition was generally accepted by the 
country north of the slave line, and fostered, if it did 
not create, that patriotic and national sentiment to 
which appeal Avas so successfully made when the flag- 
was assailed and the war inaugurated. The whole 
ISTorth being a unit against secession, all its patri- 



ORATION. 57 

otism was aroused, and all its vast resources of men, 
money, and military material contributed to the cause 
without stint. Every draft upon its loyalty for the 
defence of the government and the maintenance of 
the Union was recognized. 

It may be doubted whether there would have been 
this unanimity of sentiment in respect to the rights 
of the general government, or the same inflexible de- 
termination to maintain them, if the war of secession 
had come upon our countiy at an earlier period of 
our history, and before the theory of nationality had 
fully formed and crystallized. 

When we consider how tixed the two sections 
were in their convictions touching their constitutional 
rights, and remember the intensity of the popular 
feeling therein; the fierce invective of the press; the 
acrimony of Congressional debate, and all the cir- 
cumstances which surrounded and controlled the 
question, — it is evident that it« peaceful solution 
could hardly be expected; that compromise was 
almost impossible; that the Gordian knot could not 
be untied, and was to be cut by the sword. 

THE DECISION OF THE WAR. 

The war has decided that there shall be no ques- 
tion or differences of opinion as to the loyalty due 
from the States and from the people to the national 



;*)8 EMANCIPATION GROUP. 

government. It has decided that there is no right 
of secession. It has decided that slavery, wliich 
prompted the assertion of this right, shall cease to 
exist. • 

These decisions will never be disturbed. They are 
final and irreversible. The dogma of secession was 
the logical sequence of the doctrine of strict con- 
struction. The advocates of the latter maintained 
the absurd proposition, that the framers of a consti- 
tution for the formation *"' of a more perfect union " 
contrived such a monstrosity as a government with- 
out the powers necessary for its existence ; that they 
called into being an entity incapable of maintaining 
itself against the revolt of its own parts, — a creation 
which might be destroyed, like the children of Sat- 
\u"n, as soon as born ; a something that might at once 
become a nothing. 

If this be so, then all the time and labor of the 
constitutional conventiou were expended in vain, for 
its boasted work is of little value. What folly to 
adopt a national flag, and demand for the United 
States a place among the sovereignties of the world, 
if any State, or any number of States, could at 
pleasure -break up the government and destroy its 
unity and individuality! 

But the framers of the Constitution were wise men, 
'and understood govermiient as a science. By this 



ORATION. 59 

instrument tliey gave the federation all powers of a 
national character for the enforcement of national 
authority, and thus provided for the preservation of 
the Union. "Perpetuity," says Mr. Lincoln, "is 
implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law 
of all national governments." 

But while the rights of the national government 
have been adjusted, and the powers which properly 
belong to it recognized, through the arbitrament of 
war, a grave question looms in the distance, whether, 
in the flush of victory, it is not disposed to claim 
more than lielougs to it; whether it may not encroach 
upon those rights which under the Constitution are 
reserved to the States. The preponderance of the 
centripetal may work as much of mischief iu our 
political system as that of the centrifugal forces. 

Soon after the adoption of the Constitution it was 
provided b}^ amendment, " that the powers not dele- 
gated to the United States by the Constitution, nor 
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the 
States respectively or to the people." Our political 
S3^stem, as the Supreme Court of the United States 
has well said, "is an indestructible union composed 
of indestructible States." In the distribution of 
national and State powers we should watch with 
equal vigilance, that the rights and powers of the 
federal government are not disturbed by the States, 



60 EMANCIPATIOX GROUP. 

and that the rights and powers of the States are not 
disturbed by the government. A just equilibrium 
between both is essential for the protection of both. 
Power ever seeks to augment itself. The path of 
history is strewn with the wreck of governments 
once free, which have been destroyed by executive 
usurpation. To establish the just authority of the 
national govei'nment we have expended thousands of 
millions of treasure and fought hundreds of battles. 
Let us take care that in avoiding one extreme we 
do not drift into another, which may require like 
sacrifices to coi'rect. Our national safety lies in the 
middle path. If the general government is per- 
mitted to usurp the reserved rights of the States 
in matters of local and domestic concern, where the 
latter have exclusive cognizance, each act of usur- 
pation will become the precedent for another. En- 
croachment will follow encroachment, until the 
harmony of the system is destroyed, and the gov- 
ernment perverted from a union of coordinate and 
coequal parts, each recognizing its loyal obligations 
to the Union, and the Union in turn protecting the 
rights of each, into a centralized and consolidated 
authority, which will ultimately assert imperial sway, 
to the destruction of constitutional government, and 
the overthrow of free institutions. An " indestruc- 
tible union of indestructible States " will give peace. 



ORATION. 61 

prosperity, and glory. The States, free and inde- 
pendent in their own spheres, and in the enjoyment 
of their just rights, will revolve in their appropriate 
orbits around the common centre of the national 
government, whose attracting and repelling forces, 
so adjusted as to maintain their proper influences 
over each portion of the system, will keep the whole 
in subordinate and harmonious relations. 



EMANOIPATION MARKS A NATIONAL ERA. 

The abolition of slavery may be said to make one 
of our national eras. The establishment of American 
Independence relieved us from the dwarfing influ- 
ence of colonial dependence and the oppressions of 
imperial power. The emancipation of four millions 
of slaves delivered us from a dangerous disease, 
which threatened the national life. iNone will deny 
the baleful influence of slavery. It was an incubus 
upon the prosperity of the country. It retarded the 
development of its resources. It depressed values. 
It degraded laboi-, and aft'ected injuriously every 
economic interest. There can be no doubt that the 
industries of the South were largely stimulated by 
this system of labor; but I think it can be shown that 
such prosperity as the slave States enjoyed was not 
attained by, but in spite of, slavery. 



62 EMANCIPATION GROUP. 

RESULT OF EMANCIPATION. 

]N^ow that this cause of evil has been removed we 
may hope that no great impediment to our advance 
in all the things which make a nation great and pros- 
perous will be found. There may be sectional rival- 
ries and differences of opinion touching many mat- 
ters of national concern. The people of different 
States may not agree as to the policy which should 
govern in respect to fiscal measures, tariffs, the dis- 
position of public lands, the construction of public 
works, the acquisition of new territory, the mainten- 
ance of armies and navies, and other questions of 
national polity; but these will be powerless to en- 
danger the national existence; they will not be rocks 
and shoals to endanger the course of the ship of state, 
but merely storms through which statesmanship will 
safel}' guide and carry it. We may now hope, if we 
act wisely, for the perpetuity of the Union for as 
many centuiies as the institutions of human contri- 
vance can ])e expected to endure. The teri'itory we 
occupy has been so shaped by Providence, its config- 
uration is so peculiar, its mountain ranges and river 
valleys so formed, as to afford no national boundaries, 
and compel the Union as a necessity. We cannot di- 
vide into separate sovereignties. This natural adhe- 
sion is strengthened by the bond to be found in the 



ORATION. 63 

influence of the Puritan spirit wlftch pervades the 
country. Two-thirds of our people trace their hneage 
to the race which hmded from the Mayflower. From 
the lakes to the gulf, and between the two oceans, 
the public mind and heart are imbued with the great 
qualities of these heroic men, — their love of liberty, 
their respect for law, their capacity for labor, their 
dauntless courage, their self-reliance, and their in- 
dividuality. 

Puritanism absorbs and proselytes. Its character- 
istics have been forced upon the fifty millions who 
now occupy our continental domain. We may 
therefore anticipate a brilliant future. The recupera- 
tive powers of the country are everywhere active. 
The wounds of war are healing. Oui- vast resources 
are developing. A million of soldiers have returned 
to the ranks of civil life, and become producers. The 
manufacturer, the farmer, the mechanic, all the 
workers in the various fields of labor, are promoting 
the national industries. The vast debt incurred in 
defence of the Union has been largely lessened. Our 
enormous exports are bringing daily and hourly to 
our shores the wealth of transatlantic countries. 
We have only to be true to ourselves, act justly, and 
cultivate peace, to become the leading nation of the 
world in all that makes a nation great and pros- 
perous. 



64 EMANCIPATION GROUP. 

But, while we tndulge these pleasing anticipations 
and picture to ourselves the brilliant promises of the 
political future, let us not forget the claims of the 
four millions of slaves liberated by the emancipation, 
symbolized by the bronze we dedicate to-day. Let 
us not forget that they are now endowed with the 
same '' inalienable rights of life, hberty, and the pur- 
suit of happiness," the same right to enjoy in " safety 
and tranquillity the blessings of life," which the 
wdiite man enjoys. Under the amendments of the 
Constitution they are American citizens, subject to 
the obligations of citizenship and entitled to its 
privileges. 

Since their manumission they have shown them- 
selves generally disposed to be orderly and well 
behaved. Their peculiar physical organization re- 
quires them to live in the southern climate. They 
must be, for the most part, agriculturists. Their 
labor is necessary for the prosperity of the South. 
"Without it the rich lands of that section will depre- 
ciate in value, for the white laborei's cannot well till 
their places. That they are industrious is proved by 
the fact that the largest crop of southern staples 
ever raised was gathered the present year. Policy, 
then, as well as justice, demands the good treatment 
of the freedmen, the recognition of their rights, and 
the pi-otection of their interests. 



ORATION. 65 

But it is not merely their material welfare which 
should concern the people of this country. In order 
to make them good citizens and iit them for the dis- 
charge of the duties of citizenship, and esioecially to 
fit them for the judicious exercise of the right of suf- 
frage, which has been recently extended to them 
through the amendments of the Constitution, they 
should be educated. ]^ot only their own interests 
demand this, but the national safety calls for it as a 
necessity. 

It is universally admitted that the moral and intel- 
lectual education of the people can alone uphold 
republican institutions. Whatever, then, is done for 
the elevation of the Avhite should also be done for 
that of the colored men. They have been called the 
" wards of the nation." Let the nation treat them 
with a guardian's care, and see to it that they are 
trained and educated like other human beings, and 
taught to be honest, truthful, virtuous, and God- 
fearing. 

The South, because of the poverty resulting from 
war, cannot, at this time, do all that is necessary in 
this direction ; but the reports of the trustees of the 
Peabody Education Fund show that it realizes its ob- 
ligations in the premises, and has made commendable 
]>rogress in the work. 

It is to be hoped that the general government will 



66 EMANCIPATION GROUP. 

soon see that it is its duty, as well as its interest, to 
aid onr southern brethren in their efltbrts to dis- 
charge the solemn responsibilities imposed upon 
them by emancipation. 

PEliSONAL CHAIIACTER OF LIXCOLN. 

Allow me a few words touching the personal char- 
acter of Mr. Lincoln. Those who have acted impor- 
tant parts in the drama of public affaii's can rarely be 
justly understood or appreciated by their contempo-. 
raries. The latter are too near the scene of events to 
see them in their just proportions and relations; too 
greatly aifected by the passions engendered in the 
conflict of opinions to perceive the facts as they exist ; 
too often misled by the prejudices of party spirit to 
judge motives and measures with the candor wiiich 
truth demands, and too strongly wedded to favorite 
theories and preconceived judgments to feel the full 
force of reason. Great statesmen especially, wiio 
have been in advance of their times, and devised gov- 
ernmental polities and systems Avhose fruition is in 
the future, have been compelled to look to posterity 
for appreciation, and, like Bacon, to leave "their 
names and memories to men's charitable speeches, 
and to foreign nations and the next age." Hence we 
find that the opinions touching the public men of 
preceding generations are often greatly, modified 



ORATION. 67 

when history has gathered all the facts and data — 
winnowed the true from the false, and made up its 
record. 

There have been, however, exceptional cases 
where great qualities and splendid achievements 
have been so conspicuous as to receive at once full 
popular recognition. Our earlier annals are distin- 
guished by a few of them. Washington and Frank- 
lin and Hamilton were all appreciated in their day 
and generation. We of to-day can add to the illus- 
trious constellation the revered name of Lincoln. 
His individuality was so marked, his moral and in- 
tellectual character so fully recognized, and his 
motives and conduct so well understood, that all 
knew and saw him as he was, — a man of strong nat- 
ural powers of mind, of fixed principles, of great 
purity of character, and of dauntless moral courage, 
who hated ever}' species of injustice and wrong, j^o 
time is wanted to understand him. ]N^o time is re- 
quired to obliterate blots which impair his fame. 
There is little in his public conduct to be excused or 
forgotten. His pUice in the Pantheon of illustrious 
benefactors is by general consent assured. 

Such is the judgment of to-day, and such will 
be the judgment of posterity and future ages. Those 
of the North who were politically opposed to him, and 
who, under the prejudices and passions of the hour, 



68 EMAIS^CIPATIOX GROUP. 

misunderstood his motives, assailed his statesmanship, 
and condemned his management of the great ques- 
tions he was called to solve, now largely admit he 
was misjudged, and concede to him the credit to 
which he is entitled. Even our brethren of the 
South, notwithstanding the animosities of Avar, are 
disposed to recognize his claim to the respect, admi- 
ration, and gratitude of the country. 

In looking through his chai-acter we find most con- 
spicuous his pure and lofty patriotism. He loved his 
country with all his heart and soul and mind. We 
can believe him when he said, standing in the hall 
Avhence the Declaration of Independence was issued, 
" I never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring 
from the sentiments embodied in that instrument. If 
the country cannot be saved upon its principles, I 
wonld rather be assassinated on the spot." All he 
said and did, both before and after he reached the 
Presidency, showed that he kept the political truths 
and the political principles embodied in the snblime 
Declaration constantly before him as his inspiration 
and guide. He was, without doubt, ambitious; but 
his ambition was of a generous and lofty chai-acter, 
ever subordinated to the single desire to serve his 
country and advance its best iutei'ests. He did not 
seek to raise himself to power by subverting the laws 
and trampling on the rights of the people, like so 



ORATION. 69 

many recorded by history in her most mournful pages ; 
nor did he resemble him so graphically described by 
Lucan as rejoicing to have made his way by ruin, — 

" Gavdct viamfecisse mind." 

He looked for advancement from the gratitude of the 
nation, and sought the fame of the patriot who is 
solicitous for the common good, and devoted to the 
interests of the State. He wished not to destroy, but 
to preserve. 

HIS INTELLECTUAL QUALITIES. 

Mr. Lincoln's early life was a hard struggle against 
poverty. He had none of the advantages of early 
education, and few opportunities for mental culture 
until long after he reached manhood, for all his 
time and energies were occupied in getting a liveli- 
hood. He never acquired any great amount of learn- 
ing. In i-espect to many subjects he may be said to 
have been very ignorant; but such was the force of 
his natural capacit}', and the clear and logical char- 
acter of his mind, that he may be placed in the ranks 
of those described by Tully, " who, without learning, 
by the almost divine instinct of their own mere nature, 
have been of their own accord, as it were, judicious 
and wise men; for nature, without learning, often 



70 E jNI A X C I P A T I O N GROUP. 

does more to lead men to credit and virtne, than learn- 
ing when not assisted by a good natnral capacity." 

He read but few books, but it is evident that he 
digested well what he read. He mastered principles, 
and applied them to the subject under consideration 
with exquisite accuracy. What he knew he kncAV 
well and thoi'oughly. It could not be said that he 
was learned in his profession, l)ut he acquired the 
reputation of being a sound and safe lawyer. As a 
nisi prins lawyer he was very eminent, and few of 
those who ])ractised at the same bar with him ' had 
greater power or more success with juries, whether 
he attempted to convince or persuade. 

A large share of his attention was given to the 
study of politics and questions of government. His 
public speeches and writings showed he had thought 
long and deeply on these subjects, and comprehended 
them so well that he was equally fitted for legislation 
and administration. He was the Palinurus of the 
ship of state, and through his good judgment, discre- 
tion, and firmness, it was able to Aveather the dangers 
which threatened its destruction. Like the Trojan 
])ilot, also, he was heedless of his own 'safety in the 
discharge of his duty, and in the care of the ti-ust 
committed to his charge; and, alas! like him, too, he 
was destined to sacrifice his life to the cause of his 
countrv. 



ORATIOX. 71 

HIS MORAL QUALITIES. 

His moral seems to have been more fully developed 
than his intellectual nature. All the accounts repre- 
sent him as " kindly affectioned," tender-hearted, full 
of sweet and gentle charities, ever ready to sympa- 
thize with the heavy-laden and afflicted. His early 
struggles in life made him appreciate the suflerings 
of the poor, and he felt for them. 

He was a plain, rough man, simple in his habits 
and ways, of incorruptible integrity, with a strong 
sense of justice and a conscientious regard for truth. 
It has been said, by those who knew him well, that he 
appreciated so fully the beauty of the right, and the 
deformity of the Avrong, that, able and eloquent as 
he was as an advocate, he could not argue a case to 
the jury with his usual force when he felt he was on 
the w^rong side. He could not be strong in the cham- 
pionship of a bad cause. He could not, like Belial, 

'• Make the worse appear 
The better reason." 

" On the right side of a case," said a competent 
critic, " he is an overwhelming giant ; on the wrong- 
side, his sense of justice and right makes him weak." 

So well known was his character in these respects, 
that the people in his section of the country all knew 



72 EMANCIPATION GROUP. 

him and spoke of him as " Honest Old Abe." He 
never corrupted his intellectual or moral nature, 
either by doing wrong that good might come from 
it, or by advocating error because it was popular; 
and his statesmanship, always practical and straight- 
forward, showed how unswervingly he followed what 
was just and right. 

There seems to have been no vindictivtness in his 
nature. He was ever for mercy. His tenderness to 
those who had endangered the safety of our armies, 
by desertion and other military crimes, was almost 
culpable. And it is owing to his forgiving nature 
that there was no prosecution and punishment of 
those who had made war upon the government. 
When it was urged that the Nemesis demanded Jef- 
ferson Davis should atone for the terrible sufferings 
he had brought upon the country, he replied, in the 
sublimest strain of Christian charity, "Judge not, 
lest ye be judged." On one occasion a friend was 
denouncing his enemies. Lincoln said to him, "Hold 
on; remember what St. Paul says: *■ And now abideth 
faith, ho])e, and charity. But the greatest of these 
is charity.' " His love of justice is set forth with pe- 
culiar and pathetic tenderness in his reply to Doug- 
las when they were stumping Illinois in 1858. 

" Certainly," said he, " the negro is not our equal 
in color; perhaps not in other respects; still, in the 



ORATION. 73 

right to put into his month the bread that his own 
hands have earned, he is the eqnal of every other 
man, white or black. All I ask for the negro is, that 
if you do not like him, let him alone. If God gave 
him bnt a little, that little let him enjoy." Can any- 
thing be more manly, honest, jnst, and charitable ? 
If Lincoln read but few books, he eei-tainly read his 
Bible, and kept in remembrance the Sermon on the 
Mount. 

This gentleness and softness of heart did not make 
him weak. He was strong and inflexible when duty 
required him to be so. One of his intimate friends 
remarked of him that he "had the firmness, without 
the temper, of Jackson." 

There seems to have been a strange vein of sad- 
ness underlying Mr. Lincoln's character, which af- 
fected his whole life and conduct. It was probably 
a constitutional dejection, rather than a grief re- 
sulting from disappointment or misfortune. This 
idiosyncrasy expressed itself in his homely face, for, 
despite the wit and humor in which he so often in- 
dulged, there was an ever-present pathos which no 
gayety could wholly repress. ■'■ His mirth," says his 
biographer, "was exuberant; it sparkled in jest, 
story, and anecdote, and the next moment those pe- 
culiar, sad, pathetic, melancholy eyes showed a man 
familiar with sorrow and acquainted with grief." 



74 E M A N C I P A T I O N GROUP. 

Mr. Lamon, the law-partner of Lincoln, says, "It 
would be difficult to recite all the causes of his mel- 
ancholy disposition; that it w\as partly owing to 
physical causes there is uo doubt; l)ut his mind was 
filled with gloomy forebodings and strong apprehen- 
sions of impending evil, mingled with extravagant 
visions of personal grandeur and power. His imagi- 
nation painted a scene just beyond the veil of the im- 
mediate future, gilded with glor}^, yet tarnished with 
blood. It was his destiny — splendid but dreadfid, 
fascinating but terrible. He never doubted for a mo- 
ment but he was formed for some ' great or miserable 
end.' He talked about it frequently, and sometimes 
calml}^ He said the impression had grown upon 
him ■ all his life.' The pi-esentiment never deserted 
him; it was as clear, as perfect, as certain, as any 
image conveyed by the senses. He had entertained 
it so long that it was as nuich a part of his nature as 
the consciousness of identity. . . . He was to 
fall, and fall from a lofty place, and in the perform- 
ance of a great work. The star under which he was 
born was at once brilliant and malignant." 

The historians who shall hereafter portray the 
character of those who took prominent parts in our 
great civil wai*, like those who have given us the 
characters of the eminent men who have illustrated 
the annals of other nations, will paint, more or less. 



ORATION. 75 

according to their political partialities and prejudices; 
but all, of whatever party or sect, who 

" nothing extennate 
Nor set down auuiit in malice," 

must concede that Mr. Lincoln was a good and a 
great man; that his benevolence was large, his mo- 
tives pure, his integrity unsullied, his ambition unsel- 
fish, his patriotism exalted, and that, by his prudence, 
sagacity, skill, and firmness, he saved the Union and 
preserved the republic which Washington founded. 

He has gone to join the spirits of the just made 
perfect. He has entered the communion of the no- 
ble army of martyrs in the cause of country. He has 
been received into the fellowship of the illustrious of 
every age and nation. 

ISTo monument of granite or bronze is needed to 
perpetuate his memory, and hold his place in the 
affections of his countrymen. His fame will sufi'er 
nothing from the corrosion of time, but increase with 
the advancing years. 

Crcscit, occnlio relvt arhor cevo 
Fama Marcelli. Micai inter omiies 
JuUniii sidiis, velut intei- igncs 
Luna 7ninores. 




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